Grindr's new owners identified that the app had not implemented any of the successful product and monetization strategies proven by Tinder. Simply applying this known playbook—like introducing boost features, optimizing pricing, and improving buy flows—provided a clear path to doubling revenue in under three years.
The company initially used a one-time payment plan, resulting in low customer lifetime value. Switching to a recurring subscription model, even for a product with natural churn, massively increased revenue and LTV by capturing more value over time from each customer.
A company with modest growth experimented with niche content for a small user segment, revealing a massive, underserved market. This led to a second, separate app that quickly surpassed the original product's revenue and drove hyper-growth, challenging the "focus on one thing" dogma.
Deliver's growth stagnated until they shifted from complex, variable fees to a simple flat rate. This treated pricing not as a billing model but as a product feature that solved the customer's core need for financial predictability, which became their primary growth catalyst.
To find new revenue streams, analyze what your customer does immediately before and after interacting with your product. A gym could sell apparel (before) or smoothies (after). This "share of wallet" strategy increases lifetime value without acquiring new customers.
Many businesses over-index on marketing to drive growth. However, strategic price increases and achieving operational excellence (improving conversion rates, average tickets) are equally powerful, and often overlooked, levers for increasing revenue.
Grindr generated $100M in revenue and $45M in profit despite a dismal 1.8-star App Store rating and 19% Glassdoor score. These terrible qualitative metrics, paired with strong financials, indicated the company was severely undermanaged and ripe for a turnaround through basic operational improvements.
To combat high CACs, Palta increases LTV by offering entirely separate subscriptions for additive features, not just pricing tiers for the core product. For example, a body scanner subscription alongside a workout subscription. This strategy of upselling distinct value can increase total LTV by 20%.
Instead of creating a market expansion strategy from scratch, ServiceUp explicitly copied the playbook of DoorDash, a successful three-sided marketplace in an adjacent vertical. This involved entering a new city and simultaneously acquiring customers, suppliers (shops), and drivers, accelerating growth.
By analyzing their customer journey, SparkToro realized a feature that motivated purchase decisions was introduced too late in the product experience. By moving its introduction to the early "adoption stage," they doubled their free-to-paid conversion rate without changing the feature itself.
The path to $50k MRR for a mobile app isn't a feature-rich platform. It's an obsessive focus on doing one job perfectly for a specific group with a recurring need. Examples include 'value this vinyl,' 'create this logo,' or 'summarize this text.'